Made in 1943, nine years after his comedy short Public Affairs, it was Bresson's only film released during the German occupation of France.

Though usually seen as being the most "conventional" of Bresson's features,[2] the religious subject matter and the directness of the film's style are seen by many as auspicious of the director's later work.

Anne-Marie (Renée Faure), a well–off young woman, decides to become a nun, joining a convent that rehabilitates female prisoners.

After being released from prison, Thérèse murders the man she feels is responsible for her imprisonment and comes to seek sanctuary from the law in the convent.

Though fairly conventional for its time in its approach to narrative filmmaking, Angels of Sin nonetheless contains elements which would later become common in Bresson's work, including a featuring of ellipsis: the shop owner is hardly visible throughout a sequence in which Thérèse buys a gun; there is also little context around the relationship of Thérèse and the man she murders (who, when shot, is only shown in silhouette).